The House of Representatives has finalised the National Legislation Program (ProLegNas) for 2015.
The list of new laws to be debated by the House of Representatives was finalised on Monday (9 February 2015). This year’s program has come later than expected - it was hoped that a program would be set in the first session of the House in December 2014, but political squabbles between the new President Joko Widodo’s Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and rival Great Indonesia Coalition proved to be too much of a distraction (see Jakarta Post article here).
There are two intellectual property laws in the 2015 National Legislation Program - a new Trademark Law (#11 on the list), and a new Patent Law (#12 on the list). There is also a revision to the Anti-Monopoly and Unfair Competition Law (#20 on the list) which we will watch with keen interest. A complete list is available here.
We do expect that the Trademark Law will be passed this year, as Indonesia has committed to introducing the Madrid Protocol by 31 December 2015 (ahead of the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community). We also hope to see the patent and unfair competitions laws passed - the fact that they are on the list suggests that they will at least receive attention. So far, the new government does appear to be delivering on its commitment to developing Indonesia’s creative economy, part of which involves strengthening the supporting legal infrastructure.